I was in middle school, and had just started going to church youth group.
One day we went mini golfing. We had a great time. In fact, we may have been a little too loud, running around the mini golf course, but never in a way that was disrespectful to others who were there. We were, after all, church kids, something we took pride in.
As church kids, we wanted others to know that we were good kids, but that we could also still have fun just like everyone else
We were different… but at the same time, we were not that different.
We were church kids… but we weren’t weirdos, or freaks, or zealots.
There was a tension there. Do you notice?
We wanted to be different, but we also wanted to fit in.
And living with this tension involves lots of compromises.
That tension has stuck with me. And maybe you feel it, too.
We are different.
God calls us to be different.
But how different do we really want to be? How different are we willing to be?
******
In Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins his ministry wandering from town to town, healing people and telling them about the kingdom of God. What he was doing was so different, so strange, so bizarre, that his family tried to stop him, because people were saying that Jesus had gone out of his mind.
Then Jesus called twelve disciples to join him, to follow him, to learn from him as he engaged in these activities. And those twelve left their homes, their jobs, their families, and followed him.
This was not normal! Many of their families probably questioned their judgment, or even their sanity.
When Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, his whole point was that the kingdom of God was everything that the kingdom of Rome was not. It was radically different. When the gospels talk about God’s kingdom, they are presenting a direct alternative to life under Caesar.
****** Luke’s gospel sets up this contrast of two kingdoms from the very beginning. In the first chapter, Luke says that it was in the days of King Herod of Judea… And then in the second chapter he begins by mentioning Emperor Augustus.
By mentioning these rulers of the Roman world, Luke is setting up a contrast: the rulers of the world have their kingdom and their ways, but the kingdom of God and the way of Jesus are very different.
******The opening words of Mark’s gospel, meanwhile, state that this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.
This also is a political statement, meant to contrast God’s kingdom with the kingdom of Rome. Caesar had his own “good news,” his own gospel. The “good news” of Caesar was a political and religious propaganda campaign.
So when Mark starts talking about the good news of Jesus, those to whom Mark was writing easily and instantly recognized that Mark was talking about an alternative to life under Roman rule. Mark was talking about something intentionally different from life as they knew it; a whole new way of living.
******The apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Romans, and at the beginning of this letter, he introduced himself as “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, set apart for the good news of God.”
Paul was a Roman citizen. He could have identified himself that way. (“Paul, a citizen of Rome.”) Especially since he was writing to people in Rome. But no; he instead chose to identify himself as a slave of Jesus Christ, one who was set apart for the good news of God.
Not the good news of Caesar; the good news of God.
******In Romans 6, Paul talks about how, through baptism, we have died to the old ways, and have been born into newness of life.
Paul talks about Christ’s own death, which is in its own way a deliberate contrast with the ways of Rome.
In Rome, peace was achieved through the taking of life. Rome maintained its peace by destroying its enemies. Their blood was the price of Roman peace, the pax romana.
But in the kingdom of God, peace is achieved not by taking life, but by giving life. Christ offers up his own life, for the sake of the world. There is no violence committed against others, just the willing sacrifice of love.
The way of Christ is different in almost every way from the way of the Roman Empire.
We who have been baptized into Christ are called to follow Christ’s example.
We are to no longer follow the sinful way of the world.
We are to no longer demand that others pay the price for our peace, for our prosperity.
We are to instead offer ourselves in love and service to others.
In doing so, we will walk in newness of life, just as Christ was raised from the dead into newness of life.
Notice, also, how much these verses talk about freedom… See it?
Rome, like all empires, sought to control people. Empires exploit the labor of their people, through slavery and other forms of control and oppression.
But in the kingdom of God, the only slavery is the one that we willingly submit to. Just as there is no taking of life, there is also no taking of freedom. Life and freedom are never taken; they are only given.
We do not force others into slavery, and we do not exploit the labor of others. All we do is offer our own labor and our own lives to God and to humanity.
******
So it makes sense that I heard about Juneteenth through the church long before I ever heard of it anywhere else. Not too long ago, Juneteenth was not a federal holiday, and Juneteenth was not something I was taught about in school.
But I did hear Juneteenth mentioned in the church, and because of that, I learned that it is a day that celebrates freedom; specifically, the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
Because even though the United States was founded on freedom, that freedom was not applied to everyone.
Freedom for all actually meant freedom for white males.
Women did not have the same freedom as men.
Indigenous people did not have the same freedom as white men.
And African Americans did not have the same freedom as white men.
******
In 1837, this congregation was founded, and a central part of our congregation’s identity was the belief that no person of any race should have their freedom denied because of the institution of slavery.
That was 28 years before the last slaves gained their freedom in this country.
Being against slavery wasn’t always popular in those 28 years, even here in Illinois. In fact, there were groups of people who left this congregation over the issue.
So being against slavery was definitely a different path. To stand for freedom and against slavery in those days involved the difficult choice of choosing to identify with the kingdom of God over and against the ways of the empire.
This congregation could have chosen an easier, more popular route. It could have said, “slavery is the law of the land, so we won’t stand against it.” It could have said, “slavery is a political issue, so we won’t talk about it.”
But this congregation understood that our baptism signifies a new, greater allegiance, an allegiance to God, an allegiance to freedom, an allegiance to the good news of Jesus, the news that sets people free.
This work continues. We still live in a world where life is taken, rather than given; we still live in a world where labor is exploited, rather than rewarded; we still live in a world where freedom is denied, rather than upheld.
******
In the news while I was on vacation, it was reported that Elon Musk has now become the world’s first trillionaire. I have no reason to doubt that Elon Musk is very smart when it comes to finances and investments and money management.
But I also know that he benefits from an economic system that has been built specifically to reward those who are already rich, by giving them an unfair advantage.
The super rich in this country pay so little in the way of taxes. Ever since the 1950s, through one administration after another, the tax code has been gradually skewed more and more in their favor, until now, when the gap between the rich and the poor is the largest it's been in over a century.
Which means the rest of us, and especially the poor, are now bearing the weight of an increasingly heavy burden.
We’re paying higher taxes, higher costs for housing, higher costs for health care, higher costs for groceries, higher costs for gas, while at the same time benefits are being cut and incomes are not keeping up.
Didn’t State Farm just announce a huge cut in benefits for many of its agents?
In ancient times, every time the economic system became so unjustly tilted in favor of the wealthy at the expense of the poor, God called prophets, to pronounce judgment on the nations and their rulers.
Economic inequality is the chief concern of every single Old Testament prophet.
In fact, those prophets only existed in times of economic inequality. God didn’t call prophets when the rich weren’t taking advantage of the poor. There was no need.
******The prophet Habakkuk speaks of what will happen for those who build an unjust economy: “Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!... You have plundered many nations…“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm! You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples. Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed and found a city on iniquity!” [Habakkuk 2]
******Micah, meanwhile, presents the vision of a world where God’s justice is enacted:
“God shall judge between many peoples
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” In other words, they will enjoy the fruit of the trees and vines that they themselves planted. Their labor will no longer be exploited, for they will receive the benefits they deserve.
******Isaiah also shares this vision: “You who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” It is God’s vision that all people will receive sustenance, and will be satisfied… Even those who are poor and who have no money will still share in the benefits of the economy.
The concern of scripture isn’t that everyone should be paid exactly the same.
But scripture is greatly concerned by an unfair and immoral economic system that penalizes the poor, makes it harder for them, and which gives extra advantages to those who are already wealthy.
A system like that takes away freedom. It takes away life. It is contrary to the kingdom of God, and contrary to the good news of Jesus.
******Another bit of news I heard while I was on vacation is the decision by the Southern Baptist church to ban women pastors and prohibit women from preaching. This is another instance of freedom being denied.
The truth is that God calls women to preach and to pastor. I am thankful that we in the Disciples of Christ recognize this. I am thankful that we have women capable of preaching and pastoring right here in our own congregation—certainly, if you were here the two Sundays I was away, you know what I’m talking about.
And I’m thankful that both our current and our previous General Ministers have been remarkable women who have led and inspired us as a denomination.
It was women who were first entrusted with the news of Christ’s resurrection. They appeared at the empty tomb, and were entrusted to deliver this news to the disciples.
And the apostle Paul—well, I think I need a whole separate sermon to talk about Paul’s views on women. But I believe that Paul is far more accepting and affirming of women than we have been led to believe.
After all, it was Paul who said that, in Christ, there is neither male or female, for all are one.
Even Jesus himself allowed a woman to teach him; we see this in the story of the Syrophoenician woman who challenged Jesus on his understanding of his own mission!
******So Christians today should be among the first to affirm equal rights among men and women, as well as equal rights among people of different racial and economic classes. We should be among the first to affirm freedom in all its forms.
And yes, in a world that often tries to deny freedom, take away rights, and exploit people’s labor, taking a stand for freedom and equality does make us different.
But we should not be afraid to appear “different” when we go against the flow of what so many in our society think or believe.
Because we have been baptized into Christ; and as Christians, we follow the ways of God’s kingdom, and not the kingdoms of this world; especially not when the kingdoms of this world take life and take freedoms away, rather than give life and uphold freedom.
To give life and uphold freedom isn’t something we do along with the proclamation of the gospel. It is the gospel. It is the good news… the good news of Jesus.
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